


Together After A Long Day

by Rivulet027



Category: Power Rangers Jungle Fury
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Sleepy Cuddles, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 08:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2805872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivulet027/pseuds/Rivulet027
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a long day of monster fighting the team returns to Jungle Karma to find Fran exhausted and asleep. Together they settle in for the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Together After A Long Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_afterlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_afterlight/gifts).



> Dislclaimer: I own nothing to do with Power Rangers.
> 
> A/N: Thank you to midnightclarity for the beta.

There are times RJ isn’t sure he should be mixing mentor with teammate. There are moments when he wonders if this team, these students and a past friend, are whom Master Mao had in mind. Then there are times like tonight, when they’ve fought several monsters sporadically throughout the day and are slowly making their way back to his pizza parlor. 

Dom is injured and leaning into him. RJ has a hand on Dom’s hip as he watches Casey walk slowly between Lily and Theo. The three of them are uninjured, but exhausted. They brushes shoulders as they walk. As the group of them approach Jungle Karma Dom starts to pull away. RJ’s hold tightens, “I have you.”

“I know,” Dom reassures, “but Fran will need help closing up and I want to help.”

Casey turns around from where he’s walking slowly next to Theo and Lily, “We’ll help. Or we’ll close up and you worry about getting better.”

“She has a paper due tomorrow,” Lily sighs, “I know she finished it, but we would get a late night monster attack when Fran has a paper due.”

“And she likes to do one last edit the night before,” Theo agrees.

“I don’t know how she does it,” Dom shakes his head, “I was always scrambling last minute.”

“You still managed good grades,” RJ teases good-naturedly as he pulls Dom back in. Dom sighs and leans into his side. RJ can tell Dom is about to disagree with him, so he pinches Dom’s side lightly. Dom laughs. Casey shakes his head and turns back around as Lily and Theo pause to take them in.

Dom grins at them, then winces.

“Let’s get you some ibuprofen,” Theo says shaking his head.

“I’ll help Fran close up,” Casey says.

“Or we set Fran in front of her computer and we finish closing up,” Lily suggests.

“Sounds like a plan,” Dom agrees.

“You’re going to lay down,” RJ tells him.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dom dismisses.

RJ is about to tell Dom that the rest of the team can handle closing up Jungle Karma when Casey stops just inside the door and Theo and Lily crowd into him. RJ tightens his hold on Dom and slows them down. Dom stills at his side, “Is she okay?”

RJ feels himself go cold. Were the monster attacks a distraction? Had…

“Fran’s fine,” Casey reassures, “She’s sleeping.”

“It looks like she did all the closing too,” Lily adds. Dom relaxes against his side. Theo huffs in exasperation and goes up onto his toes. RJ feels his lips quirk up. A year ago he couldn’t have imagine them as the team he was preparing for, but now he can’t imagine his life without them. Its small moments like this that cement that thought. Casey and Lily are outlined in the light from the doorway. Theo is on his toes trying to see around them. Dom is warm at his side. The monster is defeated and Fran is safe inside his pizza parlor.

Lily pushes her way past Casey and the boys follow in after her. RJ helps Dom inside and then stares. The tables are gleaming and stocked. The counter is neat. Fran is asleep, head snuggling into her arms, with her computer open in front of her at one of the tables. Lily is looking at Fran’s lap top. Casey is slowly looking around the room for a job to do. Theo comes out of the kitchen, “She did all the prep.”

“That’s our Fran,” RJ manages, too overwhelmed by the depth of friendship she’s showing him right now. He knows Jungle Karma can be run by one person, he designed his parlor to be run by one person, but he also knows how much work goes into that. He remembers how exhausted he was at the end of the day.

“I can edit her paper,” Dom volunteers.

“You can go to bed,” Theo disagrees, “I’ll look her paper over.”

Dom grumbles. RJ pinches him, “Theo’s right, you need your rest.”

“She should stay here tonight,” Lily comments.

“Right,” Casey agrees as he starts locks the front door and moves to lock the back.

Satisfied that they’ll take care of Fran, RJ starts the process of getting Dom up the stairs.

“If she’s staying then I want to sleep with her,” Dom says.

“Cuddles?” RJ asks.

“Snuggles,” Dom agrees.

RJ smiles.

Dom pinches him, “You should join.”

RJ deposits Dom in his green chair as he says, “I’ll think on it.”

Lily gets Fran up the stairs and headed towards the bathroom for a shower as RJ starts bringing their exercise mats into the middle of their living space. Casey joins him and together they lay several side by side before covering them with sheets. As Casey and Lily bring out several pillows and blankets RJ checks Dom over again.

“The powers,” Dom reassures, “I’ll be fine by morning.”

“At least let me give you something for pain,” RJ cajoles.

Dom nods and takes the pills RJ offers him just as Fran comes back wearing borrowed pajamas from Lily. She smiles at the nest they’ve built her and crawls into the makeshift large bed just as Theo is coming up the stairs. Fran sits up, “My paper!”

“It’s good,” Theo reassures, “I noticed a few things and wrote them down for you.”

“Thanks,” Fran sighs as she closes her eyes and lays back down.

“Mind if I join you?” Dom asks.

“Get over here,” Fran motions. Dom grins as he goes to curl up behind her. Fran smiles up at RJ, “You too?”

“There’s probably enough room for all of us,” Theo observes.

RJ curls up in front of Fran, smiling when she pulls him close. RJ reaches up and squeezes Dom’s arms, then laughs slightly as Dom squeezes his hip.

The other three look at each other and then scramble away for last minute bed preparations. Casey curls up behind RJ and Lily slides in behind Dom, reach over him to give Fran’s arm a squeeze. Theo turns off the last of the lights and joins them. They shift, rearranging covers and finding comfortable positions. RJ snuggles down into the covers, content. He was prepared to be a mentor. He had a morpher built for himself, just in case. He’d been told he’d get older students, masters, that knew the extent of the threat Di Shi presented. Moments like these put his doubts to rest. This isn’t the team he was promised, but he knows this is the team he’d been destined to be a part of.


End file.
